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Friar Tuck
Origin Friar Tuck is a companion to Robin Hood in the legends about that character. He is a common character in modern Robin Hood stories, which depict him as a jovial friar and one of Robin's Merry Men. The figure of Tuck was common in the May Games festivals of England and Scotland during the 15th through 17th centuries. He appears as a character in the fragment of a Robin Hood play from 1475, sometimes called Robin Hood and the Knight or Robin Hood and the Sheriff, and a play for the May games published in 1560 which tells a story similar to Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar (the oldest surviving copy of this ballad is from the 17th century). His appearance in Robin Hood and the Sheriff means that he was already part of the legend around the time when the earliest surviving copies of the Robin Hood ballads were being made. A friar with Robin's band in the historical period of King Richard, The Lionheart would not have been impossible, because the period predates friars in England; however, the association of Robin Hood with Richard I was not made until the 16th century; the early ballad A Gest of Robin Hood names his king as "Edward". What follows is a story which includes different versions of the legend. He was a former monk of Fountains Abbey (or in some cases, St Mary's Abbey in York, which is also the scene of some other Robin Hood tales) who was expelled by his order because of his lack of respect for authority. Because of this, and in spite of his taste for good food and wine, he becomes the chaplain of Robin's band. In Howard Pyle's The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, he is specifically sought out as part of the tale of Alan-a-Dale: Robin has need of a priest who will marry Allan to his sweetheart in defiance of the Bishop of Hereford. In many tales, his first encounter with Robin results in a battle of wits in which first one and then the other gains the upper hand and forces the other to carry him across a river. This ends in the Friar tossing Robin into the river. In some tales, he is depicted as a physically fit man and a skilled swordsman and archer with a hot-headed temper. However, most commonly, Tuck is depicted as a fat, bald and jovial monk with a great love of ale, though the two are not mutually exclusive. Sometimes, the latter depiction of Tuck is the comic relief of the tale. Two royal writs in 1417 refer to Robert Stafford, a Sussex chaplain who had assumed the alias of Frere Tuk. This "Friar Tuck" was still at large in 1429. These are the earliest surviving references to a character by that name. Public Domain Appearances Stage: *Robin Hood and the Knight *Robin Hood and the Sheriff *Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar Ballads: *Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar (unnamed but, is believed to be him) *A Gest of Robin Hood Book: *The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle Film: *Robin Hood (1912) *Robin Hood Outlawed (1912) *Ivanhoe (1913) *Robin Hood (1913) *In the Days of Robin Hood (1913) *Robin Hood (1922) See Also *ComicVine *Wikipedia *Robin Hood Wiki *Disney Wiki *IMDB *Fables Wikia Category:British Characters Category:Folk Heroes Category:Non-Powered Characters Category:Unknown Creator Category:Unknown Debuts Category:Literary Characters Category:Comic Book Characters Category:Animated Characters Category:Disney Characters Category:Movie Characters Category:Television Characters Category:Male Characters Category:Stafford Family Characters Category:DC Characters Category:Gilberton Characters Category:Quality Characters Category:Fawcett Characters Category:Marvel Characters Category:Dell Characters Category:Film Serial Characters Category:Vertigo Characters Category:Fables Characters Category:I.W. Publishing Character Category:Charlton Characters Category:Star Trek Characters Category:Video Game Characters Category:Protagonists Category:Outlaw Hero Characters Category:Elderly Characters Category:ABC Characters Category:Once: Wonderland Characters Category:Doctor Who Characters Category:League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Characters